Getting to grips with GPS

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Ok, seems I am not the only one finding GPS not as simple to use as it sounds. To be honest I am not sure why I even got a phone with GPS, since to use it while driving I have to either buy something to mount it or wedge it into the window visor.

I guess I imagined one day using it to find my way around another city while on holidays, instead of having to drag out the oh so obvious tourist map.

One day a week I do a lot of driving for work but usually check where I am going using Google Maps. Those directions are not entirely reliable, either, might I add, but do give me a rough idea of distance between jobs. The time estimate are often way out.

During our recent trip down south, I used Google Maps to direct us to my cousin’s farm just outside Donnybrook. I hadn’t been there for more than five years so really wasn’t sure where we were going. Being directed up a red dirt track to someone’s house, not the one we wanted, was not the desired outcome. So once we got back to mobile zone, a phone call was made. We were so close but had been thrown off course by a road being renamed.

On another occasion using Google Maps to get to Bentley, I realised I had driven in a very big circle; the quicker way to get there from the northern suburbs would have been to use the Causeway.

Anyways, I guess I will have to concede and read the detailed instruction book instead of trying to muddle my way through with GPS. I have worked everything else about the Nokia 6220 Classic out intuitively but I have a sneaking feeling I need to fiddle with the setting so I can get local landmarks.

I am not even sure how to turn it on, the blue light just seems to come on by itself. And the last thing I need is to accidentally have it logged in racking up data charges (no, I can’t work out when it is using GPS for free and when it is connecting to mobile Internet).